Where to Feast?

Here's where Feast Mass, our first recurring dinner and grant-making evening, will happen on May 8.

Samantha and I have been looking at locations since right after we got back from Feast Brooklyn. We've called up pastors of Brazilian congregations, peeked in abandoned shops, and bothered all our contacts in the food world. We found it's very expensive to rent space in Boston. And we had to rethink our ideas about how we want to accomplish Feast.

We thought we were going to hold Feast in a big church in Harvard Square that had everything we thought we needed: a large kitchen, plenty of tables and chairs, and most importantly, the capacity to fit 100 guests. Big numbers were important to us, because we figured- more guests, more money for the grant.

The only problem: renting the church and kitchen for one evening was going to cost $525. This was after Samantha had talked them down. We did some math. Say we got 80 guests. 80 guests at about $10 per guest = $800. $800-$525 = $275. To cover a grant of $250, this would leave us with no money for food and supplies.

We went back and forth about how we could make this happen. We thought about putting in some of our own money, say 100 bucks each, to cover food and supplies. But isn't the first rule of business to never invest your own money?

Ultimately we want each guest to feel like most of their money is going directly toward the winning proposal and the meal, not an expensive venue. We want Feast Mass to be sustainable. If that means less people can come to each Feast, that's okay with us for now. Plus we're incredibly excited about the location we decided on. Expect a full post on it soon.

--Lucia